Debranning-machine.



C. W. LENHART. DBBRANNING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED OCT. 1, 1918. 1L 1 22,13% Patented D60. 22, 1914.

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IDitneSses OF SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, ASSIGNOB, TO STEPHEN :Ll/[CLEAN BROWN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

DEBRANNING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 22, i9 la.

Application filed October 1, 1913. Serial No. 792,859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Crans WinLsoN LEN- HAI-rr, a citizen of the United States, residing at Spokane, in the county of Spokane and State of 'Washingtom have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Debranning-li/lachines; and I do hereby de- Clare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains lto make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in scouring devices for debranning and otherwise cleaning wheat or removing hulls from other grains, and an object of the invention is to provde a scourer for removing practically all of the bran in a dry condition and unmixed with foreign matter, so that the bran may be used for feeding stock.

A further object of the invention is to remove practically all of the bran from the wheat or the inner and outer scale from' the grains by passing the same but once through a machine the lining and other engaging parts of which tear off the dry bran without employing brushes.

A further object of the invention is to provide a debranning chamber with a conveyer worm so proportioned and disposed as to permit of the accumulation of consid erable'volume of grains within the debranning chamber for the purpose of producing friction between the grains themselves for assisting in the removal of the bran.

With these and other 'objects in view the invention comprises certain novel constructions, combinations and arrangement of parts asfwill be hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

ln the accompanying drawings, wherein two forms of my invention are shown, and wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts: Figure l is a vertical section taken through the debranning chamber and is intended to show apart only of the complete structure which is used for debranning wheat; and Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken through a lmodified form of the debranning chamber.

ln the present invention the debranning chamber which is disclosed in the drawing and described herein, compri es a cylinder lined with an abrading or non-polishing maj- 'A more detailed description follows,

lalso provided upon vdiameter of the cylinder terial. A rotary conveyer or worm projects partly through the chamber and leaves at the terminal end of the chamber a space for the accumulation of grain. At the outlet end of the chamber', complementary conical surfaces are afforded. through which the grain is rolled and drawn from the cylinder and between which it is treated in a special manner to complete the debranning process. and l wish it understood that any convenient form of driving mechanism and any convenient form of chamber may be used so long as the grain, in passing through the machine, comes in contact with the abrading or nonpolishing surfaces in substantially the manner and under the two conditions described.

Referring to the drawings, l designates a box herein shown as a cylinder or chamber, the inlet end of which is formed as at 2 with a chute for receiving grain to be debranned or hulled. rlhe inlet end is also provided with a bearing case 3 containing roller bearings e which support a shaft 5 driven by any mechanism not shown and carrying thereon a worm or conveying screw 6 which projects within the chamber l, its

inner end G being spaced from the terminal end of the chamber to provide a space 1 within which wheat may accumulate.

Mounted in bearings 7 and S is a shaft 9 driven by means of pulley lO from any source of power not shown` this shaft 9 being axially alined with shaft 5 and carrying on the end adjacent chamber l a conical disk 11 substantially complementary with a. conical fiange 12 formed on the adjacent end of chamber l.

My invention contemplates the provision upon the inner'walls of the chamber l of a lining 13 of abrading or non-polishing material such as emery, carborundum. or other analogous material covering practically the entire interior of the chamber l. There is the conical disk ll a facing 14C of like abrading or non-polishing material. The latter is hard and rough, vwhile the flange 12' and'worm G are hard and smooth-preferably of suitable metal. ln practice I prefer to make the worm of a contour somewhat smaller than the interior as shown, and

wind itaround a core or sleeve 5 which latter in turn is mounted upon the shaft 5 in any suitable manner and abuts at 4 against the end of the chamber or cylinder so as to form a thrust bearing. If the disk 11 is conical as shown, the flange 12 will have a corresponding conical face, and the facing 14 is inset into the disk opposite the smooth, hard face of the fiange-in any event the two faces are parallel, and remain so regardless of the movement of the disk as described below.

A modified form of the invention, as shown in Fig. 3, comprises a chamber l5 having a lining 16 of abrading or non-pol ishing material similar to that shown at 13 and having a worm 17 therein similar to the worm 6. A disk 18 having a planate face replaces the conical disk 11 shown in the preferred form and is provided with an abrasive or non-polishing facing 19 formed of a material similar to the facing 14. This modified form of the invention shows one of a number of variations which may be resorted to in forming the chamber and coacting disk, but I do not wish to be limited by the two showings disclosed, inasmuch as the invention resides in part in providing an abrasive or non-polishing surface to these coacting members rather than in the specific form which these members may take.

Whether the conical disk 11 be used, or the disk 18 having a planate face, or a different form of disk be used, it will be desirable to provide for the movement of the disk longitudinally of its axis under the pressure of the grain in the chamber, and as illustrative of one convenient means there is shown a sleeve 2O mounted within bear ings 7 and surrounding the shaft 9. The sleeve has the outer end thereof threaded as at 21 to receive a lock nut 22, while the inner end thereof is threaded as at 23 to receive a tension nut 24, which may be moved to vary the tension of a spring 25 mounted between said nut 24 and the bearing 7. A roller thrust bearing 26 is secured to the shaft 9 and the rollers engage the inner end of the sleeve 20. It will be apparent that as the disk 11 moves axially under the pressure of the wheat forced into the space l by the conveyer the ball bearing will force the tension nut 24 in the direction in which the disk 11 moves to compress the spring 25, and it will also be noted that the lock nut 22 may be used to regulate the minimum interval between the disk and the flange.

In the operation of the machine wheat or other grain to be debranned or dehulled is passed in any manner through the chute 2 into the inlet end of the chamber, and is carriedl by the worm 6 to the space 1, the outer hull or scale of the wheat, if wheat be the grain to be dehulled, being scraped from the kernel by the non-polishing surface of the lining 13 and the abrasion produced by the interengagement of the grains themselves. The space 1 between the end of the worm 6 and conical disk 11 eventually bccomes filled with grain which is packed tighter and tighter, and finally it is forced between the surface of the conical flange 12 and the surface 14 of the conical disk 11, this passage between the resulting in the further debranning of the grain through the removal of the inner scale.

More particularly the removal of the outer scale is effected by a scraping action and that of the inner scale by a rolling action. In the first step the abrading surface (lining 13) is fixed faced power element 6 moves-in the second step the abrading surface (facing 14) moves and the smooth-faced element 12 is fixed. In neither step do I use brushes whose bristles wear away rapidly and leave pieces in the bran so that its commercial value is impaired, and in no case do I find it necessary to mix anything with the grain which of necessity has to be removed later and by a separate process. It is well known that the ran can be removed from the kernels by air blast; but, as the latter is more effective when the parts are dry, I prefer not to moisten the grain lbefore treating it in my machine. Moreover moisture would swell the kernels and possibly soften them so that they might be injured in the rolling process which takes place during what is above called the second step.

The action of the worm is at first to feed the grain forward along the bottom of the cylinder; as it progresses therein it banks up higher and higher around the worm and more and more of the lining surface 13 comes into play, the against this surface as moved; in the space 1 a mass of grains and scales accumulate, and these are packed tighter and tighter and possibly agitated by the rotating inner end of the worm so that there is considerable abrasion as they inter-engage each other; eventually the pressure against the disk forces it outward against the tension of the spring 25, and some of the kernels escape into the space between its facing 14 and the flange 12, probably at the bottom at first, and later all the way around the disk; and the rotation of the disk causes the grains to roll between the opposite surfaces in a layer which is the thickness of only the size of one grain, assuming that the tension is properly ad- `iusted. This ro l is converted into a spiral progress of the grains by the pressure of other grains ejected from the outlet end of the cylinder, and during such progress the outer scale is removed from the kernel; so that finally the kernels drop out of the machine in a thorgrain moving along the outer scale 1s reoughly scoured condition, along with the bran composed of both scales in a thoroughly clean condition, and yet the gram has been passed through the machine but once.

Although the pulley 10 has been shown for the purpose of rotating conical disk 11 which is desirable it will not be necessary for said disk to rotate as the grain will be forced between the disk 11 and flange 12 by the action of the worm above. In the modified form of the invention it will be noted that the space at the outlet end of the chamber has the plane portion thereof largely formed of the abrading or non-polishing material 19 so that the grains will be caused to rub against the said surface and roll across the end of the lining 16 before they pass out of the chamber.

Any approved means may be used for collecting the grains after they have been dehulled. It is not necessary to use any water with the machine disclosed herein, so that the bran may be used for mercantile purposes. y

While this machine has been described as being used in connection with dry grain, yet it is equally useful when the grain is dampened somewhat and will hull rice and barley, as well as wheat and other grains, but whatever the grain, it is found that the spring p affords a fineness of adjustment which allows ten bushels to be cleaned per hour as thoroughly as when one hundred bushels are cleaned per hour, and the mechanism is such that it will instantly adjust itself for the work required, according to the variation of the volume of grain presented to be cleaned. The machines at present in use are wasteful in that they either scour too much or not enough, so that a poorer grade of flour results from the wheat thus cleaned. Also, dirty grain does not run evenly and the provision of the spring permits of the instant adjustment of the debranning parts with respect to the grain.

Throughout the specification and claims reference is found to an abrading or abrasive material. It is to be understood that the term is inclusive of any material which will serve to exert such frictional action upon the hulls or scales of the grains as would tend to strip such hulls or scales from the kernels, and is not intended to include either smooth or rough-faced metals which by use become polished and therefore exert but little if any of such stripping action.

I claim:

1. In a grain cleaning machine, a hori- Zontal cylinder having one end closed and its otherend open and an inlet through its top near said closed end, and a lining of hard and rough abrasive material within said cylinder; combined with a shaft projecting through said closed end, a conveyer on `the shaft consisting of a worm of hard and smooth material appreciably smaller than the inner diameter' of said lining and terminating at a point remote from said open end so as to leave a space within the cylinder beyond the conveyer, a sleeve carrying theworm and mounted on said shaft with a thrust bearing against the closed end of the cylinder, a metal disk over the open end of the cylinder, means for holding it yieldingly against such cylinder, means independent of such shaft for revolving the disk, and a facing of hard and rough abrasive material on the disk.

2. In a grain cleaning machine, the combination with a horizontal cylinder having an inlet at one end and its other end open, a lining of abrasive material within the cylinder, and a worm for feeding grain along the cylinder to its open end; of a disk over said end, a facing of abrasive material on the disk, a shaft on which said disk is mounted, a bearing for the shaft, a sleeve mounted on the shaft and through said bearing, a lock nut on the sleeve behind the bearing, a tension nut adjustable on the sleeve forward of the bearing, and an expansive spring coiled around the sleeve between the bearing and tension nut.

3. In a grain cleaning machine, the combination with a horizontal cylinder having an inlet at one end and its other end open, a lining of abrasive material within the cvlinder, a worm for feeding grain along the cylinder to its open end; ofv a disk over said end, a facing of abrasive material on the y disk, a shaft on which said disk is mounted,

a bearing for the shaft, a sleeve around the shaft and-through said bearing, a bearing member fast on the shaft against the front end of the sleeve, a tension nut adjustable on the sleeve, and a spring bearing against this nut.

In testimony whereof I ai'liX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CYRUS WILLSON LENHART.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM C. Loser, HENRY R. NEWTON.

Copies of this patent may be obtanedfor ilve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner oi' Iatents, Washington, D. C. 

